Drive from Johannesburg to Kruger

Travel from Johannesburg to Kruger

We had a plenty of time for Pieter to give us interesting information, as we made our 6 hours journey by bus from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park.

He began by telling us about the Rhino poaching problem in South Africa.  A Rhino horn can be sold for up to $140,000, and because of this people become poachers to earn a good living. The horn is so valuable because it is believed in some countries that it has medicinal benefits. When a Rhino is poached it happens at night, typically under a full moon so the poachers can see, and the Rhino is left to die after their horns are cut off due to blood loss. To be proactive about this problem, Kruger has started to cut of the Rhinos horns in a controlled medical setting so they will not be killed for their horn. The good news is that the Rhino horns actually grow back at a rate of ½ inch every year.

The Rhino population has grown in the last 15 years or so. Currently there are 18,000 in South Africa.

As we drove through the countryside Pieter also addressed some issues with education that have not been resolved since the Apartheid government ended throughout the country.  Schools are unevenly funded and some parent groups will hire teachers in order to make sure there are enough teachers for the amount of students.  There are national exams that students need to pass to move onto higher education and it is increasingly difficult for students in rural areas to pass these because of lack of resources in their schools. However, the government gives scholarships to exceptional students so that they can continue their studies in college. There are laws that require students to go to school until grade 10 in South Africa, and about 50% of the population goes all the way through to 12^th grade.

As we continued our drive he also addressed some of the health concerns in the countryside, and spoke about the malaria problem. He said that every three minutes a person dies from malaria, and that children under 5 are affected the most.  One of the towns we visited was called Lydenburg, which in Dutch means “the town of suffering”. It is called this because during The Great Trek when the Dutch moved inland to avoid the British rule many died of Malaria. They originally blamed a tree called the Fever Tree because it looked so different from any other trees around as it has a green trunk, and they believed that was the cause of their illness, later it was found to be Malaria.

We made multiple stops along the way to enjoy the natural beauty of the Drakensburg Mountain range we were driving through.

The first stop was called God’s Window and was a view of Blyde River Canyon.

Our second stop was Bourke’s Luck and Potholes.

The last stop before we reached Kruger was a different view of the Blyde River Canyon called the Three Rondovals.

After all these beautiful views we arrived at the Timbavati Safari Lodge where we would stay for 3 nights while we were on safari!